This exhibition invites you to explore elements of design, space, tradition, and gently challenges your expectations about what Toi Māori is, was, and can be.

“Nā to rourou, nā taku rourou, ka ora ai te iwi.
With your food basket and my food basket, the people will thrive.”

The title is a joyful command: Nekenekehia (move!) and an exclamation: Tukua (send it out!). This is the kaupapa of Nekenekehia Tukua, a new exhibition by Taranaki-based artist WharehokaSmith.

Wharehoka’s work is informed by whakapapa and generations of Toi Māori practitioners who have come before. He explores elements of design, space, tradition, and gently challenges your expectations about what Toi Māori is, was, and can be. This exhibition will invite you into a world where Tino rangatiratanga exists openly and confidently, equally supported by both pre- and post-European contact paradigms, technology and resources.

Wānanga: Nekenekehia Tukua
Join the discussion

Alongside the exhibition, Puke Ariki is hosting three wānanga that will explore tangible opportunities to continue the mahi and kaupapa presented in Nekenekehia Tukua.

The purpose of Nekenekehia Tukua is to make Toi Māori and Māori design more present in our built and everyday environment. With this exhibition, WharehokaSmith aims to free Toi Māori from an art gallery context and return it, as it once was, to being an integrated component of everyday life.

Click here to see upcoming wānanga at the gallery.